The fact is that over the last several years evidence about football-related brain injuries has been increasing. I would argue that it's irresponsible for a parent not to take notice and not to weigh the evidence and consider what particular football programs are doing to try to limit the risk when deciding whether to encourage/allow a kid to play high school football. Of course, it's ridiculous to expect all risk can be removed from just about any human activity--even sitting for long periods has a harmful effect on one's health! But we can't pretend we don't know what we know, and parents sitting in the stands watching their kids taking a hit to the head are not going to be thinking and feeling what they would have even five years ago.
As I've said on here before, the pool of potential high school football players is shrinking some. That's partly because of demographic changes, e.g. the echo-boomers are mostly past their high-school years, and partly because of the increasing popularity of other sports--as un-American as some might find them. (Who would have thought ten years ago how many Americans would be watching international soccer games at least weekly?) We could also look at the rapidly increasing use of social media. Any idea of how teenagers spend their time these days?
Re how this will affect local schools, especially the PCL. SJP has a big advantage in its ability to draw from a wider geographic area than just about any other school. Its pool too is shrinking, but it's a much bigger pool than LaSalle's, for instance. Infante's very visible involvement in the movement to make football safer is also an asset--as is his very deliberate effort to communicate directly with the mothers of players. But the large social trends are eventually going to affect every school and league.
